Tablighi Jamaat

Did You Know?

• The movement was never given an official name; Muhammad Ilyas called it Tahrik-i Imaan.
• Tablighi Jamaat does not seek donations; members bear their own expenditures.

History

The emergence of Tablighi Jamaat coincided with the rise of Hindu revivalist movements such as Shuddhi and Sanghatan, which sought to reconvert Hindus who had converted to Islam. The movement has been called a missionary offshoot of the Deobandi revivalist tradition. Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi, inspired by a dream during his second pilgrimage to Mecca in 1926, abandoned his teaching post at Madrasah Mazahir Uloom in Saharanpur to become a missionary focused on reforming Muslims. He relocated near Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi, where the movement was formally launched in 1926 or 1927. Ilyas drew inspiration from the practices of Muhammad at the dawn of Islam and adopted the slogan "O Muslims, become [true] Muslims!" The movement gained a following quickly, with nearly 25,000 people attending the annual conference in November 1941. The Mewat region, where the movement started, was inhabited by the Meos, an ethnic group that had converted to Islam but later adopted Hindu traditions after the decline of Muslim political power. Ilyas died in 1945 and is buried in the Nizām Ad-Dīn Mosque.

Beliefs and objectives

The movement defines its objective through the concept of Dawah, interpreted as enjoining good and forbidding evil, based on two specific Qur'anic verses. When visiting a village or neighborhood, the group invites local Muslims to the mosque to hear a message framed around six attributes derived from the lives of the companions of Muhammad. The first attribute, Kalimah, involves striving to make one's iman into yaqeen, recognizing that only Allah can grant peace and success. The second, Salah, calls for achieving the standard of prayer taught by Muhammad. The third, Ilm with Zikr, combines knowledge of what Allah desires with constant remembrance of Allah, so that one can act with full consciousness. The benefits of ilm are learned in Taleem programs and from Ulama. Sessions include preaching, prayers, Quran recitation, and reading Hadith, and often involve communal meals to foster community.

Activities, traditions, methodology

The activism of Tablighi Jamaat is characterized by the last of the six principles, Tafrigh-i-Waqt, which justifies temporary withdrawal from the world through travel. Travel is considered the most effective method of personal reform and is an emblematic feature of the organization. Individual jamaats, each led by an ameer, are sent from markaz across cities or countries to remind people to persist on God's path. The duration of a trip can range from an evening to several days or longer. Followers are encouraged to spend one night a week, one weekend a month, 40 continuous days a year, and at least 120 days once in their lives engaged in tabligh missions. Members typically dress in simple white loose clothing and carry sleeping bags, using mosques as their base. During their stay, jamaats conduct daily gasht, visiting neighborhoods with a guide called a rehbar, inviting people to Maghrib prayer, and delivering a sermon on the six principles afterward.

Criticism and controversy

Tablighi Jamaat maintains a neutral stance toward political Islam and extremist Islamic groups, neither condemning nor supporting their actions, which allows it to coexist in the modern Western world. Many analysts find this neutrality culpable because Islamist militant groups often attend Tablighi congregations to hand out recruitment pamphlets and may use the cover of Tablighi Jamaat to obtain visas for overseas travel. The movement has also been criticized by radical Islamist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Jamaat-e-Islami for its apolitical stance and failure to assist Islamist forces in political struggles, including the introduction of an Islamic constitution in Pakistan and communal riots in India. Tablighi Jamaat responds that avoiding political debate has enabled it to reawaken spiritual conscience and operate during difficult times, such as under the governments of Ayub Khan and Indira Gandhi, when other sociopolitical Islamic groups faced restrictions.